Hoops Report: Suspension of disbelief

For a few days–until the Tigers’ trip to Arkansas Saturday, at least–we should probably put the Jeff Lebo stay-or-go debate on hold. We should probably ignore the fact Auburn’s two SEC wins have come by a combined five points and their five losses by a combined 58. We shouldn’t think about how slim Auburn’s NIT chances would have been if they’d failed last Saturday, or how slim they’ll be if they do drop any of their upcoming winnable match-ups. We shouldn’t compare them unfavorably to the Auburn women.

Because I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of all that. They won. They beat ‘Bama. For a few days, to hell with all that.

Let’s note instead that Auburn’s previously porous defense rose up and held the Tide to 57 points total and none in the final 2:22. Let’s point out that Auburn’s sputtering offense found a way to score five points in that span against one of the SEC’s best defenses to overturn a four-point deficit. Instead of bemoaning the fact that Dewayne Reed missed one of two free throws with a chance to give Auburn the lead with 12 seconds remaining, let’s celebrate that he got the critical one to tie (remember, in the same situation last spring against Baylor, he whiffed on both). We could continue worrying that as soon as one Tiger gets hot another seems to cool off, but instead let’s praise Tay Waller–and his 20-point, 8-of-12 FG, 4-steal performance–for picking up the slack left by Frankie Sullivan’s slump. Rather than mourn the 2-5 SEC start, let’s dwell on the fact that last year’s team posted the exact mark through seven games–and against a slate that hadn’t included four teams in the current AP top 25*.

For a while now, we’ve been expecting the worst from this team. Let’s spend this week with that disbelief suspended. Let’s let ourselves hope a bit. This week, at least, they’ve earned that.

— As per usual, Auburn’s emphasis on the 3 means that the lane to the basket is open for players who aren’t Reed; the Tigers went 3-for-16 from deep but 17-for-31 inside the arc, with Waller (5-5), Hargrove (5-10), and Knox (2-2) all effective. Please, guys, get the ball inside.

— Oh, and please, don’t turn it over when you get there. I don’t know if I ever remember looking at a box score where the winning team posted a 4-to-15 assist-to-turnover ratio. (4-to-15! Good heavens.) Your principal culprit was … well, I want this be a positive post. But that guy, you know … Schmeschmayne Schmeed … yeah, 1 assist and 6 turnovers.

— On the bright side, the Auburn defense forced a whopping 19 turnovers (in one of the slower-paced games the Tigers have played this year) and hounded the Tide into 26.7 percent shooting from 3. Result: .84 points allowed per-possession, Auburn’s best mark in league play by a mile-and-a-half, even given the Tide’s difficulties on the offensive end. If Auburn really is going to make this more than a well-timed, emotional one-off, they’ve got to build on this defensive effort.

— More than one of us noted during the Ole Miss game that Ty Armstrong appeared to be doing more with his limited minutes than Johnnie Lett was. Apparently Lebo noticed, too; Lett started but played only 8 minutes while Armstrong got 13 off the bench.

Auburn women 67, Georgia 53

Belief’s never really going to be a problem with Nell Fortner’s teams, is it?

Over the past couple of weeks the Auburn women had already enjoyed and/or suffered close wins, close losses, and big losses against the upper echelon of the SEC … so you knew that sooner rather than later they’d find a way to fill in the fourth part of that equation and post a big win. Sure enough: up 5 with 7 minutes left, the Tigers held a team that was 18-0 not too long ago to zero field goals until a meaningless layup at the buzzer. On her own bobblehead day, the Dawgs had the options of going inside against Keke Carrier (who finished with four blocks) or firing away from outside … and the visitors chose the path of less resistance, taking just shy of half (24/49) of their field goals from deep and hitting all of five. And Carrier said: HA-ha!

Auburn is still just 3-6 in the SEC … but two of those wins are against ranked teams (LSU and the Lady Dawgs, who came in ranked No. 9), one of those losses came on the road in overtime (at Florida) and one came on a missed last second shot (vs. Vandy). Meaning that with all of one senior (Carrier) in the rotation, Fortner’s Tigers could easily be over .500 or a game back of it in one of the toughest leagues in the country.

Yeah, good times. Other notes:

— Auburn still isn’t shooting especially well (4-of-17 from 3, 42 percent overall), but it doesn’t matter much when you rebound the way they did against Georgia, where they pulled in 17 of their own 34 misses. No, it’s not too tough to win when you miss a shot and get the ball back half the time anyway. (Jordan Greenleaf had six of those 17.) Between their work on the glass and having committed five fewer turnovers than the Lady Dawgs, Auburn put up 10 more shots and three more FTs.

— Morgan Toles racked up 10 assists (twice her number of TOs) while adding four rebounds and two steals. And she’s a freshman. Point guard. Didn’t take too long to find the next Whitney Boddie, did it?

This thing is going to be so damn sweet I’m getting cavities just thinking about it.

But here’s a question that’s popped up in the WBE comments recently: what are we going to call it? “Auburn Arena” is the working title, of course, but is that really snazzy enough a name to stick permanently? And assuming it doesn’t, do we choose a former Auburn hoops great to honor? Who? Do we go with an Auburn administrator or trustee? Auction the name off to the highest bidder? (“Colonial Bank Center” has to be the clubhouse leader, riiiiiight?)

Your suggestions go in the comments, folks. We’ll figure this out together.

*Seriously, though, don’t get carried away with this. Scoring margin is always a better predictor than straight win-loss, and last year Auburn’s first two league wins had come by a combined 36 points, the losses by 50. But hey, you never know.

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Comments

Sonny Smith Center….that’s my choice.
Great write-up. I thought AU played incredibly tough on Saturday. This team frustrates me beyond belief, but at times look like they’re coming together. This is a complete Jeckyl & Hyde team. I don’t know who to blame, the players or Lebo??? There is always that fine line. I tend to place the blame more on Lebo, myself. However, on the other side, none of us really know what hand Lebo has been dealt. I know that recruiting for AU b’ball must be a pretty tough gig, but there have been some sure misses on Lebo’s part. How bout the kid who left the state to play at Stanford? The one to Cornell? The kid who played on the championship team at Vestavia? Lebo may be a good coach, and this simply may be a bad fit for him. Regardless, this week I’m taking the Hinnen Pledge (that’s what we’ll call it) and simply be thankful for the v-i-c-t-o-r-y over bammer. That is always sweet!!!

The last I had heard was that they were looking to give it a corporate name to try and recoup some of the costs. However with the downfall of the victoryland crew (they of the up-front money) and Colonial Bank, I think Yellawood is the only one left…

If we wanna go the coach-influential player route, since it’s worked out well before, how bout Jordan-Person Arena?

Thinking too much about my previous comment, I should have worded it different, as it sounds almost like I’m negative about the thought of naming something after Coach Fortner. This is very much not the case. I’m hoping she stays at Auburn for a LONG time and wins NUMEROUS championships.

If you want to recognize an awesome coach, how about we call the new arena the “David Marsh Center for a Sport that has won 12 less National Titles than I Me and I’m Kind of Bitter because We Got a Really Crappy Outdoor Pool….Arena”

But seriously, you could at least make it a cool nickname…sort of like the “Jungle” thing that really hasn’t stuck. I can see it now…”The Marsh…”

Wow, what a huge win for this team. These seniors especially. I’m glad they had that moment. No matter what, they’re gonna at least have this moment. It was a pretty solid turnout for a rainy Saturday afternoon, and a contest that went down to the wire had Beard-Eaves rocking one more (last) time.

At least Reed and Luke and Tay and all the seniors will have this one. Last year’s team was pretty special, and it was definitely the climax of Auburn basketball during these guys’ tenure. And guys like Dwayne and Luke had to watch, waiting, while Tez and Vot and Sheem earned electric and close wins like Tennessee last year. Now they have their close win. Now they’ve seen the team get that moment, while they were in control. And after coming up short against UK and all that, you could see it meant a lot to them. Because it meant a lot to us.

God I love beating Bama.

Hats off to the ladies, as always. I’ll be fired up to see what they can do when SEC tournament time comes around.

And let me just say something real quick. Because I’ve seen it everywhere, and I just think something needs to be said;

Say what you will about Dwayne Reed. Make the jokes about the turnovers, the random drives and floaters, and whatever. But if someone thinks that this team would be BETTER without Reed, then they are a complete idiot. It’s like everyone has already fortgotten that Quantez did the same crap last year. Why? Because they’re running JEFF LEBO’s offense. (Sorry WBE — It’s hard to put it on hold… Although, the “stay-or-go debate” has been done for a few weeks now as far as I’m concerned.) Sometimes the shot clock runs down and he just has to throw something up, just like Tez did last year. The difference was, Tez had a couple beasts off the offensive glass that could make up for it half the time. Sure he went one-for-two with 12 seconds left, but who got the steal a few seconds later? That steal WON us the game! Where’s the love? I’m not saying Dwayne Reed is the best player in our starting five; he very well could be #5, but no lower. Folks have been kind of implying it for a while, and it’s just the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Look at an average offensive Auburn possession — Now take Reed out of it, and image what would happen. Nothing. He’s the glue. He’s what gets the wheels in motion. Hats off to him for WINNING US THE GAME.

they already put “auburn arena” up in big letters on several sides of the building. i think we should name something in it after chris porter, even if it’s like the “chris porter honorary staircase.” sometimes you can forget about that guy and that whole team.

About Sonny Smith … I definitely respect what the guy accomplished at Auburn. No doubt he’s the best coach we’ve had, and it’s not even close. But he also bolted Auburn for VCU as soon as things got even a little bit rough, setting off the chain of events that ended with Tommy Joe Eagles getting hired, the program getting slapped with probation, and the team wandering in the desert for a decade. I’m glad he was Auburn’s coach, but I really don’t think his entire tenure warrants naming a building after him.

Re: Lebo and recruiting … yeah. Gee, you think we couldn’t use the kid who won Ivy League Player of the Year as a sophomore PG? (As an aside, I got to watch Louis Dale go up against Frankie Sullivan in a regional HS playoff game matching up Altamont and R.C. Hatch a couple years back. Great game, awesome stuff.) It’s one thing for Cousins to go to Kentucky, but if you’re getting out-recruited in your own back yard by Cornell, something’s gone wrong.

Which brings me to my next point: Reed. AO, I’ll totally agree that Reed gives it his all out there, that he’s our best option at PG (and it’s not even close), that his steal won the game, maaaaaaaybe even that we’ve been too hard on him. But the fact is that Reed doesn’t play smart basketball or play to his strengths often enough–when you’re not a good 3-point shooter OR a good finisher in traffic around the basket, you need to restrain yourself from taking those kinds of shots and look to get the ball to people who can. And he doesn’t. Tez Robertson, in fact, did (he took only 11.6 percent of Auburn’s shots last year:

compared to Reed’s 26-plus percent this year) which is why I’m sorry, but I don’t buy that comparison at all. Robertson kept his head down, played excellent defense, and didn’t try to do things he couldn’t do very often. Reed does it all the time. Now whether you want to blame Reed for that or Lebo for allowing/asking him to, that’s up to you. But I don’t think you can argue that in his senior season, Reed ought to be capable of helping this team more than he has.

Harrison: yeah, I saw that in the photos. I thought they might be temporary. Guess we’ll see. And as for Porter … maybe a concession stand. Or a water fountain. Guy got kicked off the team with a month left in the ’00-’01 season. If we’re going to name actual parts of the buildings after members of the ’99-’00 bunch, I’d suggest Doc Robinson.